Common Core Standards
Common Core Standards
About
The Common Core State Standards, which are backed by extensive research and supported by educators, school district leaders, and President Obama, are an important step forward in education reform. They establish clearer and higher standards for K-12 students in Math and literacy in English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. By the time the standards are fully implemented, in 2014-15, students with IEPs will also be held to these standards.
Over time, students will be doing a lot more writing in school—they will need to strengthen their writing skills to demonstrate their learning across subjects.
In English, there will be more of a focus on non-fiction texts in addition to traditional literature. There will also be a focus on literacy in all content areas.
In math, there will be more emphasis on problem-solving, and students will need to be able to explain how they arrived at the solution to a problem. The new standards also emphasize the need for students to develop critical thinking skills—skills that are difficult to measure on standardized tests. We will need to design different types of student assessments to measure students' skill in critical thinking. This cannot be done with multiple-choice tests alone.
Visit the NYC Department of Education's Common Core Standards website
